June 2015

June 30, 2015

Many instructors are moving away from lecture and toward more collaborative learning. There are assorted pros and cons about this development, but now that virtually everyone has a hand-held device, it seems natural to search for a good way to use this technology in the classroom.

Please have a look at this article in Faculty Focus by Lloyd Willis, an associate professor of English at Lander University, in South Carolina. The author explains how using a couple of free Google applications can accomplish a great deal. He walks you through the steps to get started, and has already taken various pitfalls into account. You can tell he's been there, done that.

Practically everyone has a Google account already, but this is easily accomplished for those who don't. Some classrooms even have electrical outlets for each student, hence avoiding the low battery obstacle.

From the piece:

As is always the case, however, there is never a perfect solution. Some content must be delivered to the class, some students resist buying into a course that doesn’t directly contribute to their career training, and some students resist injecting themselves into classroom discussions whatever form they take.

My most recent strategy to combat these challenges has involved using Google’s Web apps, specifically Google Docs and Google Slides, to facilitate in-class discussions and collaborative projects. There are many Web apps, presentation platforms, and collaboration tools that are more elaborate and flashy, but the Google products are easy to use, with interfaces familiar to anyone who has ever used any word processing or presentation application. They are also free, and are universally available to anyone with virtually any type of smart device.

June 29, 2015

A federal judge last week cleared the way for the Department of Education’s regulation on "gainful employment," part of the Obama administration’s efforts to ensure that individuals who enroll in career training programs will earn enough money to repay their student loans, as reported by the American Council on Education.

The rule goes into effect July 1.

Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed the legal challenge filed in 2014 by the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, writing that “gainful employment regulations—including the current debt-to-earnings test and disclosure, reporting, and certification requirements—survive this court challenge in their entirety, just as prior courts have concluded.”

This issue is important to community colleges, as some public two-year schools—at much less cost to students—offer the same career training programs as nearby for-profits.

From the ACE announcement:

The final rule is expected to cause 1,400 programs, 99 percent of them at for-profit colleges, to be put at risk of losing eligibility for federal student aid, The Chronicle of Higher Education reported.

However, as ACE Senior Vice President Terry Hartle told The Chronicle, he was not sure if the regulation would achieve the results its backers want. “No one really knows what the impact will be,” he said.

The road to final gainful employment regulations has been long and controversial. In 2012, a federal judge blocked elements of the final rule put forward by the department, which would have pulled federal student aid from career education programs whose graduates had high debt-to-income ratios and low student loan repayment rates.

The department’s appeal of that ruling was denied in March 2013, and it declined further judicial actions, deciding instead to convene another negotiated rulemaking panel to craft a new set of rules. However, that panel failed to reach a consensus in December, leaving it up to ED to move forward with its favored approach.

The district court’s decision was announced the same day a Senate appropriations subcommittee approved a spending bill that would block both the gainful employment rule and the Obama administration’s college ratings plan.

June 26, 2015

Women are underrepresented in STEM fields, generating a protracted discussion about the cause. Take a look at the composite photos of staffers at hi-tech companies and it resembles the collective membership of a college fraternity.

Mathematics is the gateway to a host of other related fields. If women can crack the code at an early age, a lot of other stepping stones will fall into place.

Some of the gap may be due to the level of personal confidence. A new study published in the Journal of Sex Roles reveals that men tend to think they are better at math than they actually are. Women, on the other hand, tend to offer more accurate assessments of their mathematical abilities, as reported in This Week, by Becca Stanek. (A link to the study is available in the article.)

Believing you can do something and actually doing it are two different things, of course. Also, it's just one study—undoubtedly loaded with methodological problems. But we teachers have all observed this phenomenon anecdotally. You don't have to get all Freudian to notice that young men are more likely to believe they are Masters of the Universe. And how often have we heard young females say, "I'm not good at math."

Confidence doesn't cause success, but it may be a precondition.

From the article:

The study offers some interesting insights into the ongoing discussion about women's under-representation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. While women in the U.S. comprise 48 percent of the country's workforce, they only hold 24 percent of STEM jobs. Researchers suggest that this gender gap in STEM fields may in part be because of men's tendency to believe they have a knack for the subjects, which in turn encourages them to pursue a career in the field. If men's overconfidence is indeed part of the equation, researchers say that women may benefit from adopting a similar "positive illusion."

June 25, 2015

Bill Hammond, CEO of the Texas Association of Business, recently praised the Texas State Technical College System as the "gold standard" of higher education, citing its 95 percent job placement rate. The remarks were part of a speech to the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce, as reported in the Rio Grande Guardian by Steve Taylor.

TSTC receives its state funding based on job placement.

You may remember Mr. Hammond as the person responsible for billboards criticizing community colleges for purported low graduation rates.

During his address, the speaker took universities to task for low rates of success, at one point asking a TSTC official how many anthropology and journalism majors were enrolled there. (Obviously the answer is zero, since TSTC does not offer such degrees.) He also said it is unfortunate that, during the recent Regular Session, universities were not required to institute outcomes-based funding, as community colleges were in 2013.

Mr. Hammond said higher education needs to be more consumer friendly. The article is worth reading for a glimpse into this point of view, offered by an important voice with the Texas Legislature.

June 24, 2015

As we all know, a new state law will permit individuals with concealed handgun licenses to bring their weapons into campus buildings. However, universities and community colleges will take slightly different paths.

For one thing, two-year schools have an extra year to plan. Under the statute, public universities must implement campus carry by August 2016 and community colleges must comply by the following August. Here is a nice article on two Panhandle institutions and their tentative plans, as reported by Jim McBride, in the Amarillo Globe-News.

The two schools profiled in the article are West Texas A&M and Amarillo College.

In practical terms, the divergent time frame means universities may become the proverbial canaries in a coal mine. Community college educators will watch their behavior carefully. The two-year colleges' deadline of August 2017 will actually come after another Regular Session, with plenty of opportunities for further alterations, at least hypothetically.

However, keep in mind that any such changes can work both ways. Supporters of campus carry were unhappy with institutional exemptions under the law to create gun-free zones (which weapons advocates see as a sinister loophole) and will undoubtedly be working during the interim for broader allowance of firearms on campus. They will be collecting campaign promises during the next election cycle.

The gun-free zones will probably be more applicable to universities. According to numerous reports, the statute's authors did not intend to restrict access for licensed carriers in classrooms, libraries, or offices—the precise sites of concern to many community college faculty.

Testimony indicated a great deal of interest in restrictions regarding athletic facilities and university hospitals, for instance. Some witnesses stated that these particular sites can be filled with raw emotion. Perhaps they have never been in a classroom when exams are returned to students.

Another pertinent difference between universities and community colleges is that the latter enroll an older demographic profile of students. Licensed carriers must be 21 or have military experience. Therefore, the impact of additional guns will be felt more keenly at two-year schools.

At least two-year college educators will have time to observe implementation at universities before finalizing their own plans.

June 23, 2015

Reportedly, up to 35 million Americans have enrolled in college but failed to earn a degree or credential. A new report from Higher Ed Insight, a research firm with ties to the Lumina Foundation, analyzes the challenges adult students face when they return to college, and places this population under a statistical microscope.

Millennials and other demographic cohorts get studied to death, so it's refreshing to see the focus on a different—yet important—category.

The 69-page document also "seeks to describe what works with this population, in part by looking at local, state and national partnerships that bring together higher education and employers to better serve and engage returning adult students."

For community and technical college educators, there are no big surprises in the report, but the format is useful nonetheless, as it separates "what we know" from "what we don't know." You can scan through the document quite easily for nuggets of information, including some interesting charts and graphs.

As the narrative indicates, many of these persons quit school earlier in their lives due to financial pressures, and have returned seeking improvement in earning power. Absent big increases in financial aid, there is not much community colleges can do alone to bend the economic curve upward, but one recommendation may be obtainable: training advisers to serve adult students more effectively.

The particular needs of part-time students should receive more attention, according to the report. To this end, the publication urges more flexibility in course offerings. However, this goal may contradict the contemporary movement toward "block scheduling," which features fewer choices for students, not more.

June 22, 2015

State funding for community and technical colleges could certainly be better, but this raw fact has not prevented institutions from doing pretty amazing things. The Texas Government Insider, a weekly publication of Strategic Partnerships, last week featured a front page article on two-year schools by CEO Mary Scott Nabers. She is also the author of a recently published book, Collaboration Nation.

The TGI is read widely and covers the interaction between the public and private sectors. The article may put some spring in your step. Air in your tires. Gas in your tank.

In addition to saluting these institutions generally, the piece contains details of recent developments at several Texas schools. There is a lot going on, thanks to progressive leadership from educators and trustees.

June 19, 2015

June 26 is the deadline for participation in Leading from the Middle, sponsored by TCCTA. The event is scheduled for July 12-14, at the historic Menger Hotel, steps away from the Riverwalk in San Antonio.

The conference is designed for mid-level administrators at Texas two-year colleges. It is a kind of "boot camp" for deans, division chairs, IT directors, student services directors, and others as we provide key information and insights to help you succeed in your respective positions. We address legal issues, educational technology, legislative and budget orientation, leadership skills, ethics, and other areas that directly affect professional performance.

June 18, 2015

We are basically familiar with the acronym STEM (as in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Although some studies indicate that there is no real gap between present STEM education and the career market in those fields, a national movement is underway to pour resources into the effort.

A tangential (and much smaller) movement is reportedly urged to add the arts to the mix, according to an article in Slate by Anna Feldman. Advocates insist that STEAM—with an added "A"—would not take away from the "hard" sciences, but offers a chance for recruiting a more diverse population into quantitative fields. The article is worth a look.

Here in Texas, under the new regimen of outcomes-based funding, extra money is awarded for student success in STEM fields. Frankly it is highly unlikely the arts will ever be added to the mix. However, the STEAM movement is impressive in k-12 education and parents often express concern that the arts are not supported adequately. Many community college educators say the same thing, as the core curriculum undergoes painful trimming.

STEAM advocates stress its importance in collaborative projects by students—ways to blend the creative side of the intellect with other components. The various fields of design, including the new 3-D printers, seem ripe for this development, as the article points out.

Finally, we have all met medical doctors, for instance, who also play the piano or paint, and have witnessed all those extremely bright kids playing the violin, dancing, and acting. It makes sense to recognize that something is going on there that our educational curriculum should recognize and nourish.

June 17, 2015

Student course completion rates tend to be lower with online classes. Also, faculty members will tell you anecdotally that online students need to be more mature and disciplined in order to succeed with the format. Nevertheless, online pedagogy keeps expanding all over the country, even while the growth of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has slowed.

The California community college system recently announced an upgrade to its online program. Many of the components seem similar to advances used in Texas, but it may be worth a look. The announcement is attracting media attention, as one might expect with such a massive system of 100 colleges.

System spokespersons said the effort was designed to make it easier for students to locate classes that fulfill transfer requirements to the California State University system—the typical pathway for two-year college students in that state. Among the improvements is an application that works easily on mobile phones and a more efficient search function.

The Online Education Initiative (OEI) is a collaborative effort among California Community Colleges (CCCs) to increase student success and completion by working together to increase access to quality online courses and support services for students.

GOALS: Ensure that more students can obtain certificates, degrees, and transfer to four-year colleges in a timely manner. Special attention is given to support services that are tailored the diverse needs of community college students.

KEY TO SUCCESS: Strong involvement of stakeholders throughout the CCC system. The OEI Steering Committee is represented by leaders from all facets of our system, including faculty, distance education coordinators, support staff, administrators, and students. The initial implementation involves 24 pilot colleges representing the diversity of colleges. The OEI management team collectively has over 75 years of CCC experience.

BENEFITS:● Expand student access to quality online courses by providing support for course improvements aligned with common quality standards and by facilitating cross-college enrollment● Increase student success and completion with support and services such as tutoring, online learning readiness, and basic skills support● Encourage faculty and staff involvement with professional development, instructional design support, networking, and content resources● Improved access to courses and services through an innovative common online learning environment● Leverage cost through systemwide licensing